I watched Evelyn almost sprint to the entrance of her building. And the fact that she was doing that in those high heels of hers was both commendable and frightening.

Did she hate being with me that much?

I waited until she was safely in and then started the car. Since I was close to the campus anyway, I decided to go back to our sharehouse instead of the hotel. I could always drop by tomorrow to grab my clothes and tidy up a bit before letting the cleaners in.

The sharehouse was on the outskirts of the campus, closer to the gates than the college buildings. Originally it was owned by an older couple who then donated it, along with their land, to the university since they didn't have a child of their own. Extremely sweet and selfless of them. We still had some of their stuff and photo frames inside. The guys who lived there before me believed that the couple haunted the place and didn't dare to sell or throw any of it away.

Now, I didn't believe in ghosts but it didn't hurt to be a little respectful and keep their things as they were. I just moved it from my room to the store room. At least it was still in the house, right?

When I pulled into the driveway around 3:30 a.m., the entire street was silent as a graveyard. Not a single soul in sight. If there was a party going on, this same street would have been packed with students going and coming till dawn. I parked my car and jogged up to the porch where all the lights were turned off. Opening the door with my key, I stepped inside, quietly shutting it behind me.

The house was silent as well with all the guys sleeping soundly like babies. They wouldn't stir even if the house was set on fire and the fire trucks were blowing their sirens outside. Sometimes I wondered what they would do when I moved away at the end of the year.

Taking the stairs, I went to the second floor where my room was, all the while listening to them snore. Dylan was the worst of all. He always sounded like someone had turned on the blender and forgotten about it. Thankfully, he was far, far away from my room.

When I reached my door, I took out the keys again and opened the door. As soon as I saw my bed, I fell face-first on it, groaning with exhaustion. The party, Evelyn, and driving back and forth had done a number on me. And the moment my head hit the pillow, I was out like lights.

Except it wasn't a peaceful sleep. Throughout the night, I kept dreaming about Evelyn and all the sweet, sweet sounds she made as she fell apart in my arms.

***

Dylan's loud wolf whistle echoed through the locker room. After our defeat in the last game with Maple Park, Coach doubled down on us with the most grueling drills. Each and every muscle in my body was screaming with pain. All I wanted to do was take a warm shower and pass out for a few hours.

"Which wild cat did you bring home last night?" he asked, coming closer to inspect the marks on my back. Just the thought of her making the said marks had a shiver running down my spine.

"The wildest," I replied, trying to stop the amused grin that threatened to break out on my face.

"How did I not know? It doesn't look like they could be made without accompanied sound," he said and reached out to touch my back.

I swatted his hand away, whirling around to face him. "Who said I brought her home? I came home late last night while you were snoring like a trash-crushing machine."

He gasped and took a few dramatic steps back. "You wound me."

"But seriously as painful as that looks, it must have been hot," Ethan commented from behind me, gesturing to my back with his water bottle.

Oh, it was hot alright.

So much so that I was seconds away from getting bricked up again if I thought about it any longer. I backed out of the conversation with the guys before they could interrogate me further. I didn't kiss and tell. Seeing that they wouldn't be getting anything from me, they started talking about the most awful dates they'd had and I went to shower instead. As the warm water splashed on my face, I shut my eyes and heaved a sigh.

I needed to talk to Evelyn. The way things had ended last night just didn't sit well with me. I needed to clear things between us before we came face to face again on Monday when everyone would be around us. But as pathetic as it sounded, I had no way of contacting her. Well, I did know where she lived but that would put me in the stalker zone. Not where I wanted to be when it came to her.

The boys spontaneously decided to go bowling since it was Sunday and no one had anything better to do. While I did want to join them, I was severely sleep deprived and was this close to making the sidewalk my bed. So I parted ways with them and left the locker room early, more than ready to go home.

While I was walking towards the exit, I saw a familiar figure round the corner. My steps automatically hurried to see if it was really her or if I was hallucinating like a lunatic. I reached the lobby and sure enough, Evelyn was standing with my coach, talking about something.

I halted in my steps, observing her. She was wearing a green turtleneck paired with cream-colored loose-fitting pants. Her reddish brown hair was neatly tied on top of her head, the ends of which were somehow looking like a fountain. Regardless, she still looked like the most beautiful girl on campus.

Contemplating if I should walk over right now with some excuse to talk to her or wait until the coach left, in the end, I decided to wait. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel like I was cornering her. I whipped out my phone and waited on the side, pretending to be texting someone while always keeping an eye on her.

She and Coach talked for a long time and my resilience was about to give away when he finally left. I heaved a sigh and stalked forward, wanting to reach her before she spotted me and made a run for it. Unfortunately, she did see me.

And as soon as her gaze landed on me, her eyes widened dramatically and she did exactly that. She fucking ran away. Fuck.

"Evelyn!" I called out, loud enough for the two dudes going in the direction of the gym to hear but Evelyn did not stop. If anything, she increased her pace. This woman was driving me crazy.

Cursing under my breath, I hurried after her to the parking lot. By the time I reached there, she had already gotten inside her car and was fastening the seat belt. "Evelyn, listen to me," I said when I was a few feet away from her.

She cut me a glance before backing out of the parking lot. "There's nothing to talk about."

Like hell we didn't have anything to talk about.

"Yes, there is. You can't just run away like this," I said.

She turned her face to look at me through the window. "Watch me."

And then she was zooming out of the parking lot in her beaten-up Honda like it was a fucking race car. "Fuck!"

This continued over a week. A week! Every time I tried to approach her, she would run away. She had even stopped coming to the coffee shop near the rink and all of it was frustrating me.

I got that she thought it was a mistake but geez she was treating me like I was the carrier of the damn plague. It was so bad that even the guys had started noticing her antics.

While she feigned like everything was normal and she hadn't just flipped my world on its axis, I was suffering from the after-effects of that Saturday night. She was stuck in my head, haunting me like a damn ghost. If she was distracting before now it was like she was living in my mind rent-free.

Whoever said that doing it once gets it out of your system was a pathological liar. Because if anything, Evelyn had installed herself in my system even more. And the fact that I didn't know what to do or what I wanted to do was keeping me awake at night, weighing on my mental peace.

Did I want to do it again? Maybe. I mean who in their right mind would refuse Evelyn?

Was it a good idea though? Debatable.

There could be two possible outcomes. Either the "getting it out of our systems" thing worked the second time, or I would get irrevocably addicted to her. It was a gamble.

One I was willing to take but for that, Evelyn needed to stop running away from me as if I was the harbinger of death. I needed to solve this situation before it became a bigger distraction. I was already on thin ice with my agent and the board members. I couldn't afford to have this weight over us taking up my time and energy.

Either Evelyn and I were going to cut things off once and for all or somehow make this...whatever it was between us...work.

"Hey, don't you think something's wrong with Eve?" Kris asked on Monday of the second week of her "run-away" show. "Isn't she acting a bit weird these days?"

Now, while I grasped all the words he had said and completely understood their meaning, my mind got stuck on one word. "Eve? Since when did she become Eve to you?" I asked, shoving my gym clothes in my gym bag a little too aggressively. These days everything was pissing me off.

"God. You're going to rip that thing," Kris winced, seeing me stuff my bag. "And Evelyn and I have become close enough."

I turned to face him fully. "How close?"

He shrugged. "Not best buds but definitely friends. She's helping me with my camera fright."

Oh, then they were close. If Kris had told her about his camera fright, they were on the track to being best buds. It was a sensitive topic for him. But I didn't sense that he had feelings for her so I was about to give up and turn around when an idea popped into my head.

"Hey, Kris," I called.

"Yeah?" he said as he lifted his bag on his shoulders.

"Has she... Evelyn I mean, talked to you about something?"

His brows furrowed. "Something like what?"

"I don't know. About what's troubling her? Like you said, she is acting a bit weird, isn't she?" I said, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.

"Nope. She just seems a bit off these days. Not her usual perky self," he said, a thoughtful look in his eyes. His gaze then landed on me and stayed there for a little too long making me go rigid. I wondered if he had seen through me but then he shrugged again. "Maybe I should ask her. See if I can help somehow."

When he started walking towards the exit, I fell in step with him, exhaling a sigh. Thank God for his innocent and trusting soul. If it was Dylan in his place, he would have put two and two together and made me spill my guts out. "You should," I said, agreeing with him.

"Yeah. We are going to rehearse the solo interview before they officially start next week. Good thing it's Eve who's going to conduct those. If it was someone else, I would have to start working from the bottom up."

I stopped abruptly. "Wait, Evelyn is going to conduct those interviews?"

"Yeah. You didn't know?"

"I didn't actually. Thanks for telling me," I said, grinning as a fantastic idea struck me.

I knew just the way to make her come running to me.